I'm interrupting this dormant dog-blog to write about my entry into the world of children's literature - there will still be the occasional mention of my erstwhile doggie companion who is still a pup in spirit, if not in size.

8 Mar 2012

A Lone Dog

Took Pip for a nice long walk on
the beach this morning. I’ve been up in Melbourne this week and Him-In-Doors
has been crook with tonsillitis so with one thing and another, the poor pup has
been a bit neglected.

It was breezy but the sun was out
and the beach was a beautiful place to be. We had just begun our walk when a very robust
Staffy bounded down for a play.

Pip underneath Charlie. I think he was enjoying himself!

Now, to my untrained eye Staffy’s bare a
passing resemblance to pitbulls which makes me a tad prejudiced against them...

I now know perfectly nice people
who own Staffys and although obviously not my dog of choice, I can see they
might have their appeal. Anyway, Pip really took to this Staffy – that we
later discovered was named Charlie.

Pip and Charlie played the way
Pip and Frankie play – with gay abandon! Which was all fine and dandy except;
there was no sign of Charlie’s owner. We approached one man who had another dog
and I asked if it was his dog – he said no that it belonged to a couple who had
walked further on up the beach. The man speculated that the couple thought they
would ‘catch up’ with Charlie on the way back.

As regular readers will know I’m
a bit of a stickler for rules and while dogs are allowed off-lead on this part
of the beach, they are supposed to be ‘under effective control’. Now, I think
it’s reasonable to assume that ‘under effective control’ means keeping your dog
within eye-shot – yes?

Pip and Charlie played together
as we walked for about a kilometre. We were nearing our exit point, 7W which
leads to our favourite cafe The Cheeky Cow, and I was wondering what we were
going to do about our newly adopted friend.

Thankfully at that moment I heard
a whistle and saw a bald-headed man (no, I’m not baldist) coming down the
stairs and calling out ‘Charlie’. Said Staffy, thank God, turned around and trotted
over. Baldy gave me a wave which I curtly ignored.

Any pointers on doggie etiquette
in this situation will be gratefully received.

2 comments:

Baldy is a Bad Dog Owner. And Charlie is a Royalist name for a dog, so he is probably a snooty Australians for a Constituional Monarchy type. Next time, call the ranger on the mobe and getting Charlie impounded.